*sic*A role-playing game (RPG) is a type of game in which players assume the roles of characters and collaboratively create narratives. Gameplay progresses according to a predetermined system of rules and guidelines, within which players may improvise freely. Player choices shape the direction and outcome of role-playing games.

Role-playing games are typically more collaborative and social than competitive. A typical role-playing game unites its participants into a single team that adventures as a group. A role-playing game rarely has winners or losers. This makes role-playing games fundamentally different from board games, card games, sports and most other types of games. Like novels or films, role-playing games appeal because they engage the imagination.

terraficta is a set of Adobe Photoshop files designed to create digital maps of fictional locations for both print and screen. This site offers categorized files like templates, add-ons, patterns, and brushes as download. They are free for personal use.

Right up AG's alley I would wager. If only I had more time, I love making maps!

Home of Powergame, a short, free indie game. The focus is on supers games, but can be used for pretty much anything, and gives examples of how to do so. Stresses fast and entertaining/dramatic gameplay over realism, which is fine with me. In addition to English, it's also available in Hebrew, French, and Brazilian Portuguese (I'm not sure why either). Has a couple of other things lying about that might be interesting.

Mostly I'm interested in the list of Free indie RPGs, which thus far seems to be insanely organized and is sortable by keyword. I haven't looked at everything on this site yet, but it looks like there's also a *ton* of other stuff that could be useful- an encyclopedia of published RP books, and notes of all sorts.

The complete text of Machiavelli's The Prince, translated into English. Good to read as background for the construction of governments within a gameworld, particularly if it's a Renaissance setting, or you have a selection of small, fractured kingdoms.

I thought so too. Actually, they've got some great Photoshop links and tips and whatnot, and not only for Photoshop. The GIMP, some vector-based programs, links everywhere (though most of it will focus on cartography stuff, like photoshopping your maps to look stained and weathered, etc.). In fact, they've also got some great links about medieval demographics and city construction in general. It'd be worth your while to check them out further, if for no other reason than to gain a better sense of 'realism' in how your campaigns/worlds/cities/towns/etc. are set up.Got this one from Pariah: http://www.thecbg.org/news.php

Unfortunately, I'm not sure if it's somewhere farther down the listing in this thread, as I haven't had the time to read through it all. Still deserves a shout-out though.

PoisonAlchemist: Man Muro, you boost my confidence and then you just go crush it with a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Pariah: Don't tell him things like that, if his head gets any bigger he'll float off like a weather ballon :p

One of the best guides I've ever found for play by post roleplaying. This was almost as good as holy writ for me a few years back.

Unfortunately, the Land of Mystics site itself is inactive, and has been for a while apparently. My last visit was something like 3 years ago, so I can't really say for sure...Great roleplaying while it lasted though.

The Spring Issue of Fantaseum, the Journal of the Creative Community Alliance has it all! A quality e-zine compiled by three RPG & fantasy sites - The Campaign Builders' Guild, The Cartographers' Guild, and PlotStorming - the journal features two RPG pieces to enrich your game (one mini-setting and a festival), one mapping tutorial, three pieces of fiction, four maps, and one unique monster. Everything a GM, gamer, or anyone who loves fantasy, should enjoy. Follow the link to download:

PoisonAlchemist: Man Muro, you boost my confidence and then you just go crush it with a heartbreaking work of staggering genius.Pariah: Don't tell him things like that, if his head gets any bigger he'll float off like a weather ballon :p

This site contain the character writeups archives of the dcheroes mailing list - covering characters from comic books, movies, novels, TV serials, etc. All the current writeups use the DC Heroes system - which is also known as Blood of Heroes and MEGS (Mayfair's Exponential Game System).

This unconventional massively multiplayer online game merges your web life with an alternate, hidden reality. The mundane takes on a layer of fantastic achievement. Player behavior generates characters and alliances, triggers interactions in the environment and earns the player points to spend online beefing up their inventory. Suddenly the Internet is not a series of untouchable exhibits, but rather a hackable, rewarding environment!

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Basically you browse the web and you can plant good and bad things on webpages using points you collect. When somebody else stumbles upon that same webpage where you set something they trigger whatever you left. Once you get enough points you can create quests and such too.

It immediately reminded me of my curses plugin that I wanted to do on the site. The one where you could use points to curse other people: turn all the text red, make it read backwards, make links random, all that jazz I brought up before.

This makes me thing much bigger. We could do a similiar thing on the site with quests and someone could write a riddle to find a certain post and when you do something pops up and you get a reward of some sort. Somebody could make a list of subs to visit and vote on and if they do then they will earn an award. Could even run the regular quest like that. I only did surface thoughts with it, but I really like the concept. Need to get a working site first though.

The easiest way to describe it is to say that it's basically the pen & paper Dwarf Fortress - sort of. Basically, it's a... game(?) which turns a sheet of paper into a dungeon with a history and an ecology. It takes a while, but I find it amusing.